This invention relates to binding means for leaf structures where the leaf structure is used for the capture, representation, organization, access, presentation, communication, and delivery of information, and to such leafs further comprising a top window surface having perimeter features including a plurality of edges, where at least one edge offers novel binding means capable of providing alternate ways of being attached to other objects, where said binding means relates to a hinged binding that offers means for semi-permanent attachment to other objects, where said semi-permanent attachment allows said leaf structure to be directly attached and subsequently reattached, by way of a self possessed repositional(capable of being attached, removed and reattached many times) adhesive, to a host, particularly a host book, it's bindings, it's surfaces, i.e. its pages, and or its covers, where said semi-permanent repositional adhesive means may be deactivated, thereby allowing for the separate binding of the leaf as any leaf might be manipulated, shuffled, or otherwise attached to a structural binding, such as a ring binding, clip, or the like. These leafs and their bindings relate, therefore, to the non-sequential (non-linear) pivotal binding of leafs to alternative host binding structures. First, pivotal attachment is offered by way of the hinged adhesive binding structure, and enables the page to be turned as a page of it's host binding whether, sewn, stitched, ring or the like, said non-linear behavior being enabled by physical repositioning through use of a self possessed repositional adhesive allowing attachment to a host surface. Second, with repositional adhesive deactivated, non-linear repositioning is enabled through attachment to a structure such as a ring, by way of an integral cut pattern, or to a clip, pocket, or loosely coupled via rubberband or like "unbound book" binding means.
The invention particularly relates to the provision of such semi-permanently attachable pages which possess repositional adhesive as one of the multiple binding means and offer the property hereinafter referred to as "repositional window paging", the ability for the page to maintain its top or "window surface(face)" and perimeter orientation in various bound positions by removal and replacement using the semi-permanent attachment means offered. The new aspect here is the novel way of allowing for the activation and deactivation of the repositional adhesive along a pivotally folded hinged strip.
The invention relates to leafs of various types according to the invention possessing writing, forms such as calendar formats, adhesive strips, adhesive mounting surfaces, and basic mounting surfaces, including leaf sets comprised of pluralities of surfaces, leafs which themselves are folded in a pattern forming a plurality of surfaces, pockets of various styles, leafs as indexes with one or more indexing edges, leafs with writing surfaces such as notepads, and leafs with means for attaching posted repositional notes which serve as a delivery system for attachment and subsequent manipulation of arrays of stacks of repositional notes of varying sizes. The leafs may have their structural features such as their fold hints and hole patterns, cut therein, prefolded, or otherwise printed in such a fashion that their unique structural formation and behavior is enabled.
The invention relates to a particular form of repositional leaf body which has a plurality of repositional note stacks and an adjoining leaf array. The invention relates to the mechanical implementation of this object.
This general feature of repositional window paging, when added to or implemented as any one of a number of these different surface types improves visual access and dynamic manual access to the surfaces as part of a book system. These mounting surfaces may therefore be offered as easily repositional pages for a host book to enhance the overall notetaking process.
The invention further relates to leaves with surfaces offering semi-permanent retaining means which enable easy removal and reinsertion, permitting rapid reordering for non-linear access, while retaining their semi-permanent binding during the page turning operation, to such mounting surfaces which provide "repositional window paging", which may be semi-permanently attached to the surfaces of a host using a self-possessed repositional adhesive, and subsequently attached to say a ring, clip, or other binding structure, when their repositional adhesive is deactivated.
The invention also relates to the construction of mini-books, "booklets" where each leaf is turnable as a page and is semi-permanently retained in the booklet.
The invention therefore relates to book systems formed by combining covers, rings, and windowing surfaces according to this invention that offer compact, reconfigurable, highly visual means for handling heterogenous, mixed media forms of information. In particular to book systems comprised of mounting surfaces according to this invention, with repositional notes mounted thereon which are retained for referential access and whose value ages according to time and content merit, where the leaf bodies and the notes mounted thereon provide high referential integrity and the construction of contexts of groups of notes comprised of notes where each note represents an item of information. Further, where the groupings of notes are capable of being reconstructed dynamically and where their leaf carrying member may be subsequently reintegrated in a hosts with alternate binding structures.
These repositional windowing surfaces, implemented with removable holes and cut patterns according to this invention, may be implemented with the hole pattern formed as an attachable tape strip, or, alternatively with an adhesive strip of any (and appropriate) length ("short" strips have a length that is shorter than the overall page length) or width ("narrow strips" have a width that is sized so as not to interfere with a leaf hole pattern by way of being narrower than the distance from the hinged edge to the point of the hole closest to that hinged edge), or they may be implemented directly as part of a surface, i.e. a page, in standard length (page length) and standard width (typically a 0.6 in tape band of repositional adhesive) or in short and narrow form, with a recording section formed in a suitable way to the end application.
With the primary application of this binding as a new form of repositional note, i.e. for example Postit.TM. (brand name of 3M Company), the existence of repositional notes in and of themselves must be considered. Currently, the traditional repositional note in standard form has it's adhesive on the opposing side, when considered with respect to the side used as the writing surface. In this form of repositional note, the note is written on directly as an opaque surface receptive to writing, i.e. paper. The adhesive is active when the note is unattached to a host object, and the adhesive operates as it's sole binding means for attaching to a host surface. First, when such a note is placed in a book, the note typically covers the surface on which it is placed. Although this is not always the case, as with notes made with a clear plastic material as a part thereof, the dominant note formfactors as standard format notes in "macrosizes" of 1.5".times.2" and up have this property. Adhesive strength being set for removability, any effort to "look below" the note, by lifting up the opposing edge of the note, to see below, results in a turning torque orthogonal to the adhesive binding and thereby results in the undesirable separation of the note from its host surface and the progressive curling back of the note. Curling back occurs when the larger extent of the unadhesively attached section is lifted off its host surface and creates other problems in appearance, readability, and unwanted dislodging by other interfering objects. Additionally, standard form uses only one side of a repositional note for representation purposes, i.e. the note cannot be turned in place so that both sides may be used (exposing the other side dislodges the note). Therefore existing repositional notes do not lend themselves to be turned, but rather are for the static posting to a surface, only one side used for representation, and moved only by purposeful separation.
Further, existing repositional notes are primarily writing surfaces and act as substitutes for paper in the notetaking process. If one were to mount a written repositional note on top of a second repositional note as a host surface, (accepting the current and typical pattern of adhesive for these notes which has the adhesive along a single edge with a tape band of approximately 0.6 inches), for the purpose of using the second or host note to move one or more written notes placed on top of it as a group, a number of other problems would arise. First, paper surfaces are not ideally suited for receiving repositional notes. The placement of repositional adhesive on granular surfaces yields fewer movements per adhesive application than would placement on a smooth (coated) surface. Even if stronger or wider adhesive is used, some form of smooth surface is preferable for the host note. In other words, if the host (second) note is to be used as a moving means, and not for writing, its surface would be better constructed as a smooth surface for receiving notes as a primary function. Second, if the note is structured as a standard format note, i.e. with adhesive along one edge and on the opposing side of the mounting or writing side, and formed from thin paper as is the standard case, then when the host note is lifted, all the notes mounted there on can dislodge in an adhock manner from the curling effect of lifting the standard format host note.
In addition, once such a note is used, it's secondary location is limited to a surface in which the adhesive may be applied again. This will result in the note being attached to other pages by it's self-contained adhesive which other pages, themselves, may be bound in any number of ways to a host. The note itself may not be used in a second, non-adhesive binding manner. For example, if one wanted to "shuffle" such a set of standard format notes, this would be impossible since the active adhesive would attach to the first object it came in contact with. It might be possible to reorder the notes by breaking and relinking their adhesives, one to the other. This, however would be a very time consuming operation and would not provide the full eye hand effect of resistance free shuffling.
Typically notes are written on, then discarded. Here, notes which are written on are reused in an overall referential structure that is multidimensional as opposed to sequential, and the consumption of or utilization of notes is increased not by throwing away but instead by a process of intelligent collecting. Even notes which are no longer needed in an active sense may be intelligently "garbage collected" by category and used as a list of referencable and completed items, thereby forming an item based note "microworld".
Typically leafs used for attachment to a structural binding, i.e. a ring or a clip, possess any number of forms and related functions, i.e. pockets, acetate, folds of various kinds and have a standard cut pattern for attachment to a compatible target host binding. However, these surfaces may not be attached to any other surface at random but require a compatible host binding of like structure for reattachment. Surfaces according to this invention possess their own adhesive, in the preferred embodiment, a repositional adhesive, for attachment to a second surface.
Typically, to form a multi-leaf structure, a binding means must be employed. There are numerous binding means available, but often these are structural bindings that are "thickened" by the binding structure itself, like a ring, wire, clip, or stapled folded structure that have a minimum height defined by the height of the binding itself. The binding thickness is not directly equivalent to the thickness of the sum of the leafs bound, but sets the maximum number of leafs which can be received. The ability to place/insert a preset number of leafs as a "turnable" leaf set module, within another leafed structure where the leaf set thickness of the insertable module is no greater than the sum of the thickness of one or more of the number of leafs themselves has been unavailable. Providing such multi-leaf structures, in particular multi-leaf sets, with their own direct binding means through a selectively "activatable" adhesive is new. Providing an adhesive which may be attached to a multiple leaf structure thereby enabling it to function as a semi-permanently attachable leaf set is new.
So, the invention further relates to the construction of mini-books, "booklets" where each leaf is turnable as a page and is semi-permanently retained in the booklet, and where the leaves are formed with the leaf structures according to the invention where each of the leaves has a hinged repositionable binding, cascaded, one attached to the other in a pad format with an optional deactivation base leaf or strip. The formats of the leafs may include any of the leaf styles in prefolded combination.
Therefore, windowing pages that preserve the face and perimeter orientation of the top surface or "window", which may be constructed as writing surfaces, or multi-function surfaces, and which may be semi-permanently attached to a heterogenous set of bindings, binder surfaces, i.e. the cover or other surfaces of the host object, (i.e. the blank book or notebook) using a "deactivatable" repositional adhesive have been unavailable. Further, such heterogenous binding repositional notes acting as "repositional window pages" which themselves act as mounting surfaces for, in particular, other repositional notes, and which provide a quality means for the posting of groups of notes mounted thereon have been unavailable. Such repositional windowing pages as described, delivered in a semi-permanent attached fashion, there by offering non-sequential positioning across heterogenous bindings, have been unavailable to notebook users.
Additionally, leafs with short and narrow binding tabs which offer repositional adhesive on a portion thereof, may be folded over to deactivate, and which leave all perimeter edges "free" but for the perimeter section along which the binding tab is located, have been unavailable.